Safe encapsulation of heavy metal waste (e.g. paint & ink pigments) in Pulverised Fly Ash (PFA) for use as aggregate in concrete.

The UK paint market is currently the fourth largest in Europe, creating enough waste each
year to fill 40 Olympic sized swimming pools (40 x 2,500 m3 = 100,000 m3 ). Thus, when
developing new paint formulations, the industry must balance the performance of the paint
with its environmental impact. Depending on the intended end-use, some paints contain a
number of hazardous substances and heavy metals, requiring specialist disposal via licensed
contractors. Typical removal costs range between £500 & £1,000 per tonne of waste & rising
with increasing landfill disposal costs.
Leachable metals present in untreated paint sludge pose significant risk, since many have been
shown to be bio-accumulative and toxic within the environment. The environmental impact
and high cost associated with disposal of commercial paint sludge has led EncapsuWaste to
create a novel encapsulation process that cost effectively diverts paint waste from landfill. Our
process aims to lock-up the leachable metals fraction, creating a cleaner, more economical
disposal process, while significantly reducing the environmental impact of the waste stream.
The problems associated with hazardous paint waste disposal are not confined to the UK and
as such, EncapsuWaste is hopeful that future technological and market developments will
facilitate international expansion.
The benefits of the proposed process versus existing disposal are expected to be:
Significant reduction in toxic waste to landfill Reduction in toxic waste leaching and its build-up in groundwater Reduction in disposal/treatment cost of hazardous paint waste
Production of a useful filler for paint manufacture or concrete production with a commercial
value